Jemmy the Cat

Jemmy the Cat is the major antagonist from the 1975 Japanese anime film Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. She is a talking diabolical cat who has a very strong hatred of Marina and will stop at nothing to get rid of her.

Personality

Although she is shown to be the Prince's pet, Jemmy is cruel, jealous, mean and downright evil. She hated Marina when she first saw her on the beach and since then has been planning to get her killed.

Biography

Jemmy the Cat is first seen in the movie hissing at Marina when she is human and lying on the beach. She is next seen leaving the room where Marina and the Prince are together. When Marina goes outside to save her friend Fritz the dolphin from boys who are throwing rocks at him, she accidentally kicks Jemmy's bowl of milk in her face, causing Jemmy to hiss. Jemmy then appears in the forest where Marina and the Prince are riding horses.

Jemmy succeeds in jumping on Marina's horse, causing the horse to be frightened and throw Marina off of it. As Jemmy had planned, a pack of wolves surrounds Marina at a cliff. The Prince rescues her by killing the wolves, much to Jemmy's frustration. Jemmy swears to get rid of Marina for good.

She is then seen perched on Lord Chamberlain's shoulder and she and him discover the Prince with Marina. She tells Lord Chamberlain that Marina will not escape her again. Jemmy then goes to the castle and tells the King and Queen that the Prince is against their marriage arrangement and is in love with another girl and they must resolve the problem or the situation will get serious.

It is unknown what happens to Jemmy afterwards as she is not seen again in the movie and is apparantly still alive.

Trivia

It is unknown why Jemmy greatly hates Marina in the first place. Some fans speculate that Jemmy saw Marina as a threat to the prince or she simply wants to get rid of Marina simply because she hates her.

There has been a lot of debate as to whether or not Jemmy is the sea witch in disguise. This is due to the fact that both Jemmy and the sea witch are voiced by the same actress in the English dubbed version. In the original Japanese dubbed version, however, it is a different actress. This seems unlikely because the sea witch is actually not evil, while Jemmy obviously is.

Jemmy is rather unique as the film's villain, as in the original fairytale there is no villain and the prince does not own a cat.